


once upon a younger year

by amberbee112



Category: White Noise (Webcomic)
Genre: Birthday Cake, Gen, hawk has a Time, set just before chapter 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 17:41:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21305987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amberbee112/pseuds/amberbee112
Summary: its hawks birthday. birthdays are Weird.(title is from the nights by avicii)
Kudos: 8





	once upon a younger year

Hawk leaned over the cake cooling on the counter and poked it with a toothpick. It was a little charred around the edges, but it seemed pretty good regardless. It was a long time since he had cake, an even longer time since he baked one. He only had foggy memories of trying to make a cake for Em’s birthday, and even then he was pretty sure Liya took charge.

Hawk stood up straight and rubbed his face. Shove that into the same corner of his brain as every other birthday memory. Vlad said distractions were good, and they _were_! Making the cake kept his mind off _everything_ for two hours. But when there wasn’t anything to do--waiting for the cake to cook, and now cool, it made it harder to ignore everything.

Hawk picked up the jar of rainbow sprinkles he had found at the back of the spice cupboard, shook some into his hand and downed them. Just tasted stale and a little sweet.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Now he had a physical reminder reminder that it was his birthday, so he’s be stuck thinking about it for a couple days. Whatever. Too late, he had a cake and it smelled great.

He touched the side of the pan. It wasn't that hot. He could probably ice it now. Hawk took the spatula resting in the bowl of icing and sort of...dropped it on top. He smushed the lump down and started to spread it across the smooth top of the cake.

The door opened. “Hey, Hawk.” Janis started meowing from wherever she had been napping, prancing towards the door. “And hello to you too, miss.”

“Hi Vlad.” Hawk replied, smoothing the icing out. He figured he’d probably need a bit more if he wanted a good even spread.

“What’re you up to?” Vlad had appeared in the kitchen doorway.

Hawk looked at the cake in front of him, then back at Vlad. “I made a cake. Dunno if it’ll be that good.”

“It's a cake. It’ll taste fine, even if it didn’t come out of the oven in one piece.” Vlad assured him as he came up beside him. “Don’t think I have much for decorating, though. That's the fun part.”

“I found some sprinkles.” Hawk tapped the jar, resting beside the pan.

Vlad blinked. “Oh. Forgot I had those. Are they...good?”

Hawk shrugged as Vlad inspected the jar. “They don’t taste _bad_. Probably fine.”

Vlad hummed, doing the same thing as Hawk, downing a handful of sprinkles. “They taste fine for being ignored for six years, honestly.”

Hawk finished spreading the icing across cake and set the spatula back down into the bowl. “I was probably gonna put them on it either way.”

“Don’t poison me by _sprinkles_,” Vlad teased.

“You’d live. It’s my birthday cake anyway.”

Vlad stopped. “It’s your birthday? Today?”

Hawk flushed. “Yeah, today.”

“Happy birthday, then. Should’ve told me.”

Hawk scoffed, trying to hide that bit of discomfort. He didn't want it to be a big deal. The bigger deal a birthday was, the more awkward it was. “You don't have to get me anything. You’ve done lots for me.” 

“Could’ve got you a fancy cake. Or some candles at least, unless you found some of them in the back of the cupboard too.” Vlad shrugged, sneaking a bit of icing that strayed over the edge of the pan.

“Nah. You want some more icing?” Hawk offered the bowl that still had a substantial amount of icing left. He might have made too much.

Vlad accepted, swiping some off the inside of the bowl with his finger. “If you don't mind, how old are you?” He asked before sticking his finger in his mouth.

“Twenty.” It felt weird, saying it out loud. He certainly didn’t feel twenty. He certainly never even felt like he’d make it to twenty. And yet, here he was. Twenty years old and fidgeting with a container of rainbow sprinkles.

Vlad pat Hawk on the back. “Another year down.”

Hawk let out a single bark of laughter. “What a fuckin’ year.”

“Hopefully the next is less exciting.”

**Author's Note:**

> hawk fucked up the proportions a little but the cake was still pretty good. Sprinkles are mostly sugar and dont go bad. and id imagine youd have to eat a lot of bad sprinkles to get sick.


End file.
